June 12 struggle was about restructuring Nigeria, says Kokori

Frank Kokori, former secretary- general, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and member board of trustees of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, told CHIDO OKAFOR, that the June 12 struggle was a historic watershed for democracy in Nigeria. He also advocated more time for President Muhamadu Buhari to fix Nigeria.

Remembering June 12
June 12 is just a symbolic name for the struggle for democracy and freedom in the country after the military had held sway uninterrupted in the country for 20 to 30 years. So, the June 12 was to tell the military that enough was enough; go back to the barracks, especially as an election had been held and someone had won the election. So, we went through that battle and those of us who were the arrowheads of that struggle suffered some deprivation; some paid the supreme sacrifice. I was actually the arrowhead of the struggle because I used the powerful oil unions to fight the military.

At that time it was the only alternative because we don’t have a stock of freedom fighters in this country like what the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and what The Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) stood for. We don’t have them in Nigeria. What Nigeria had were just students union people, radical press, civil society groups. There was nothing like a crop of freedom fighters, and NUPENG and the oil unions played that role at that time. When I was going through all these deprivations in my lonely cell at Bama prisons I would say thank God that after this time Nigeria would have been liberated from the military; you just can’t lock me up for four years without taking me to court and disregarding Habeas corpus. Pope John Paul of blessed memory came here. My name was the second person on his list, MKO Abiola was number one and there were names like (Olusegun) Obasanjo and others.

Mandela came with the same list, but (Sani) Abacha treated them with contempt he never released anybody. But I believed when I was in prison that the Nigeria I would meet when I come out is Nigeria that is free of military dictatorship but unfortunately we came out and the PDP government that took over gave us more problem than the military. Corruption was massive than what the military did.

For years I was just watching what was happening it was deteriorating and we became one of the fantastically corrupt countries in this world. I believed at that time that with all my struggles and the struggle of the civil society groups at that time that when Nigeria comes back that there is no way that innocent people will be pushed into cells. But what did we experience? The whole institutions in this country were destroyed: the judiciary, labour movement, labour, civil society, students unionism were all destroyed – under the watchful eyes of the PDP government. Not like the days of Dadi Onyema, Udo Udoma, and Justice Eso – you don’t have those types of judges again in this country. Judges becoming billionaires owning big plazas in Abuja and Lagos- this was what the PDP brought to this country. So June 12 is a watershed and it remains forever. June 12 was supposed to be Democracy Day but for the selfishness of Obasanjo who treated June 12 with disdain and he never one day commended people like Abiola and those of us who fought for the enthronement of democracy in this country.

Should Nigeria be restructured?
The whole struggle of the June 12 agitators was the restructuring of Nigeria. We felt Nigeria should be restructured and let us practice true federalism.  And, after the military went back to barracks and General Obasanjo was made president, the first thing that the civil societies told Obasanjo was to call for a sovereign national conference or national conference because Obasanjo did not want to hear the word sovereign. For seven years of Obasanjo’s government, that issue was not visited, and that was the issue every civil society body was shouting – restructure Nigeria. The whole issue of the June 12 struggle was based on the unitary government that the military fostered on Nigeria. I’m one of the advocates of decentralizing Nigeria into true federalism. What did Obasanjo do? He ignored all the civil society groups. It was when he was looking for third term agenda that he hurriedly put on the people’s conference a year before he left office. What was his scheme? It was self-centered and at the end of the day the moment the people scuttled his third term agenda the conference came to an abrupt end.

The issue is that the PDP is a self-centered party they had 16 years to restructure this country, and Buhari who went there just a year ago you are telling him to restructure the country. It’s a shame when intellectuals and elites talk about all these things to me. Then look at the Niger Deltans who are the greatest victims of marginalization in country. We have prayed and prayed that our son should become president in this country. Jonathan was vice president for about two and half years, President and acting President for six and half years – do you know what he did? Everything was under his pocket; the Nigerian presidency is so powerful. What did Jonathan do for six years? Did he remember his people; the suffering people of the Niger Delta, to create a true federation for our people in the south? What did he do for his people?

Jonathan came to power in a whirlwind of the people.

After President Yar’Adua died and there was haze over whether he would be made president or not, the civil society took up arms against the northern cabal, that Jonathan must be the acting president. After the whole struggle Jonathan was now made the president and finally he was elected again to the goodwill of all Nigerians. What did Jonathan the son of the soil of the Niger Delta do? People cried to him on true federalism he ignored our people. It was about 18 months before he left when his popularity dropped to virtually 15 per cent from the almost 75 per cent he had in 2011 that he hurriedly, like Obasanjo, put up a national conference – and he had less than 18 months to exit. At the end of the day the full document did not see light of the day. Buhari who just came in and saw an empty treasury and saw Nigeria as a waste land, so the first thing you expect him to do is restructure Nigeria with the whole problems on ground? Some people are just being unrealistic.

Buhari’s government one year after
Buhari has done pretty well, because he is operating from a very difficult position. As you all know we’ve been through 16 years of blatant corruption by the previous administration of the PDP, where there was no sense of decorum with the way they managed the finances and their social responsibility to the people. They treated the people so shabbily; everything was based on money. There was no discipline. For almost 12 years out of the 16 years the PDP was in power, the oil was hovering around $100 to $130 a barrel unlike what we have now where it fell down below $30. So, we are in real trouble.

Added to that is the social trouble that is going on in the Niger Delta where the so-called Niger Delta Avengers came from nowhere and started bombing very important national assets. I would say that the Buhari administration in just one year from the 17 years of democracy in the 4th Republic has done well. We believe that you could actually start assessing them in the next three years, because my confidence in them is that as the head of any government – and the people see that you don’t take them for a ride, you don’t steal their resources – and that is what I can see in these new crop of people in the APC, they don’t steal. We have seen what they are passing through; the forex has depleted so badly and when we read what has happened in the past years of the PDP, the way monies that were meant for defence against Boko Haram and other social infrastructures were just shared among the chieftains and functionaries of government.

It was disgraceful and appalling and we should be grateful that at this time God brought this crop of leadership. I have confidence in the national executive of the ruling APC, they are committed, dedicated and we have not seen any sort of prodigality amongst them. It’s just that the times are hard and Nigerians have to bear with this present regime. But if you imagine so much sabotage that is going on in the Niger Delta that is affecting energy and you know energy is so crucial to any development of any society – so we should have patience in Nigeria and not be over critical of the Buhari government in just one year.

Suffering under the present government
There is no doubt that people are suffering. This government is laying its cards bare for everyone to see. We could see that petroleum came to a stage when it was below $30 and we could see the big problem we have on Boko Haram where a rag-tag army humiliated the Nigeria military for almost six years and within one year, these people have been virtually decimated and today you can’t see Boko Haram parading themselves the way they were doing. They could only dress up some 12-year-old girls who they kidnapped somewhere put some IED on them and take them to the market place. That is a big achievement. When I see all these armchair critics I ask what were they doing for 16 years when there was so much foreign exchange? You talk about excess crude account – and there was President Jonathan coming out recently to say some of his regrets were that he allowed people to influence him to deplete the excess crude account. A good government or leader must remember to save for the rainy days. So let’s give the APC some time to set the country on the right track.

Buhari promised to reveal list of alleged looters but didn’t?
I think the government is on the right track. All what they have been able to retrieve is not physical cash. The money is still lingering around; it has not come to the treasury of the federal government. This is the anticipated retrieve and they have not got it, so you could see that the money they are talking about is such a small money; £199 million. There is so much litigation everywhere, you don’t just expose the man you just collected say N100 million from and this man has swindled the country to the tune of N5 billion naira and you just exposing when he is still hiding so much? That shows you how disciplined this government is.

Corrupt people within Buhari’s government
Buhari is a very thorough man. Some are petty allegations. Imagine the case of Wole Soyinka; a state government hosting Soyinka and a lot of people. All what happened was that the Rivers state government under Rotimi Amaechi hosted a big occasion to give awards; eighty something million naira was spent, people were feted – and I know a country where individuals spend about N100 million for their birthday bash – I was happy Wole Soyinka gave back what was given to him.

They just want to blackmail Amaechi and I looked at those as petty. When I came out of prison I won the George Meany award, that is the most outstanding labour leader in the world, and most of the countries and federations gave me and my wife lavish celebrations, would they go and question the American federation of labour or the German federation of labour to say the monies you spent you gave it to Kokori? No. These are just pettiness. And I see people like Amaechi, Fashola etc. as people of character.